At Ducktoes Computer Services, we enjoy the challenge of getting websites to rank at the top of a Google search. It’s the best way of ensuring that your business is visible to a wide audience of potential clients. We use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to modify websites so that they are more visible to Google. It’s an interesting process and we love seeing our clients at the top of the rankings on page 1! Read this case study to learn why some websites will not rank in Google searches and what you can do to change that.
Case Study Part 1
In the spring of 2022, we began work with ECO-Max Construction. ECO-Max is a business in Calgary, AB that specializes in stucco repair, parging, exterior painting, and conventional and E.I.F.S. stucco applications. They also specialize in Calgary stucco installations. It’s important to maximize every dollar spent on advertising when you’re running a small business. Digital marketing such as SEO gives small businesses the best return on their investment.
When ECO-Max Construction began SEO services with Ducktoes, they had an existing website that the owner, Sandor, had built using a website builder from a popular hosting company. we have had success in the past when optimizing a website that was built using the builder that is sold by this hosting company, so we decided to begin SEO and content optimization on the existing website.
Wow, did we ever learn a lot! The process began with doing keyword research to discover what the competitors of ECO-Max Construction were ranking for. We found that stucco repair Calgary was the “money keyword” meaning that it was the keyword that most users searched for and led to clicks on their websites. We also discovered other high-volume, low-competition keywords that can be used to boost the rankings of the website. These keywords are used in the content, headings, page titles, and meta-descriptions of the website. It’s important that only a certain percentage of the text contains the keywords. Otherwise, Google might consider it to be spammy which could lead to being penalized and a drop in the rankings.
SEO Research
One of the fun parts of what we do at Ducktoes is learning about different industries. Over the years we have learned about landscaping, driving schools, physiotherapy, roofing, catering, and now stucco repair! We began researching the stucco repair industry and learning how their clients search for their services online. We then implemented these keywords into the content. This is a process that’s called content optimization. It’s important to have the right content on the website so that potential clients will see your business pop up in their search results.
We were excited when we completed the keyword research, optimized the content, and had written new meta descriptions. Now we could enjoy watching as ECO-Max took off and climbed in the rankings! Except it didn’t. It didn;t budge one bit. As the saying goes, “patience is a virtue” so we decided to be patient. It can take time for bots to crawl the pages and record the changes that have been made. We waited. And waited. And absolutely nothing changed.
Why isn’t ECO-Max Construction Ranking with Calgary SEO?
This was something new. Never before had we done so much work for a website and gotten nowhere. We’re an inquisitive bunch at Ducktoes so we began to troubleshoot and research to figure out why ECO-Max wasn’t climbing in the rankings. What we found was surprising.
It turns out that Google is increasingly not ranking websites that have been built using this particular web builder. These web builders are marketed to people as an easy way to build your website without having to have any technical experience. Unfortunately, many of them are extremely limited in the ways that they can be optimized for SEO.
We have found that the best platform to use to build a high ranking website is WordPress. It is extremely versatile and allows us to change content on the website to make it more SEO friendly to the Google bots.
Case Study Part 2
We felt bad that ECO-Max Construction still wasn’t ranking well in the search results even after months of hard work. We then offered to build Sandor a new website in WordPress for free. He agreed and we began work on the new WordPress site. This involved analyzing the existing content and figuring out ways to build on it and improve it. We decided to write more high-quality content as Google rewards websites that have relevant content that is written in a knowledgeable manner. The content must be relevant to user queries.
In this instance, we conducted further research on Calgary stucco applications, stucco repair, parging, and other services that ECO-Max provides. We also used an SEO program that has an algorithm that will analyze a website and will make suggestions about what changes would help a website to rank higher. We have used this program in the past and have found it to work very well.
Launching the New Website
After all of our hard work we were ready to launch the new ECO-Max Construction WordPress website. It can take a few weeks for Google’s bots to crawl a website or any changes that have been made to a website. We check on our clients website rankings daily. After a couple of weeks we noticed that ECO-Max Construction was finally beginning to appear in the search results! We were thrilled! This demonstrated that Google preferred a properly built website on a WordPress platform rather than on the web builder platform that the hosting company had created. We decided to conduct a case study to track the progress that ECO-Max Construction was making now that it had a new WordPress website.
Case Study Success: ECO-Max Begins to Rank
As the weeks passed, we saw ECO-Max Construction begin to steadily climb up in the rankings. From August through November 2022, the ECO-Max Construction website went from not ranking at all to then ranking for all of its keywords. It’s gotten up to the 24th spot for “Stucco Repair Calgary” and we hope that it will soon appear on Page 1! We are continuing to write high-quality content for the website to further boost the rankings. It has been wonderful to be able to help a small business become more visible online and to convert those visitors into clients. A website that has been properly built and optimized is your great salesperson! This case study has demonstrated that websites that are built in certain web builders will never gain traction and begin to rank no matter how much SEO work has been done.
The SEO team at Ducktoes Computer Services is dedicated to getting your website to the top of page 1. Contact us today to learn more about the SEO Calgary loves!